Soccer goalkeepers process multisensory information differently

The goalkeepers of soccer They have to make split-second decisions based on incomplete information to prevent a goal. A study indicates that these players present fundamental differences in the way they perceive the world and process multisensory information.

A study published today by Current Biology analyzed this ability of goalkeepers compared to the way other players and non-football players process information from the senses.

The team of researchers, led by Michael Quinn of Dublin City University, now a psychologist and retired professional goalkeeper, noted that this may be the first time there has been scientific evidence of this ability in goalkeepers.

Goalkeepers have to make thousands of very quick decisions based on limited or incomplete sensory information, which led the team to hypothesize that they have a greater ability to combine information from the different senses, which was confirmed by the results.

The researchers recruited 60 volunteers, including professional goalkeepers, other professional players, and age-matched controls who did not play soccer.

They looked for differences in what are known as temporal binding windows, that is, the window of time within which signals from different senses are likely to merge or integrate perceptually.

In each trial, participants were presented with one or two images (visual stimuli) on a screen, which could be presented together with one, two, or no beeps (auditory stimulus). These stimuli were presented with different periods of time between them.

Trials with one flash and two beeps generally led to the erroneous perception of two flashes, demonstrating that the auditory and visual stimuli have been integrated. This erroneous perception decreases as the time between stimuli increases, which allowed the researchers to measure the width of a person’s temporal link window, since when that period is narrower it indicates more effective multisensory processing.

The tests showed that, in general, goalkeepers presented marked differences in their multisensory processing capacity, since this window was narrower than that of other players and non-soccer players, which indicated a more precise and faster estimation of the synchronization of the audiovisual signals.

Another difference is that the goalkeepers integrated the flashes and beeps less, suggesting that they did not show as much interaction between visual and auditory information.

Researchers believe that these differences arise from the nature of the goalkeeping position, which prioritizes rapid decision-making, often based on partial or incomplete sensory information that arrives at different times. For example, they observe how the ball moves in the air and also use the sound of the hit.

After repeated exposure to such scenarios, goalkeepers may begin to process sensory signals separately rather than combining them.

The team will study whether other players with specialized positions may show perceptual differences. Furthermore, they want to elucidate whether this ability derives from training from an early age or if it is inherent and attracts young people who have it to the goalkeeper position.